Wing’s FAA no-observer BVLOS tech approval clears way for US drone delivery scaling

Wing Aviation, one of the world’s leading operators of drone delivery services, has received additional authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) allowing the company to considerably broaden its use of beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights without ground observers in the Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX area – and, eventually, in scaling across the US.

Owned by Google parent company Alphabet, Wing appears to be preparing to increase the range and frequency of its drone deliveries in the US market to those it has attained in booming Australia. This week, company’s head of global policy and government affairs Margaret Stewart Nagle cheered the expansion of the startup’s extant FAA BVLOS authorization, which she said will enable Wing to “to safely scale more effectively in the US” with an aerial activity being dubbed “fast-mile delivery.”

The development arises from the approval the FAA accorded Wing in September to operate BVLOS drone deliveries without ground observers – one of several all-clears the regulator accorded to sector companies, including UPS Flight Forward, Zipline, and Airbotics. 

Now the FAA specifically authorized use of Wing’s detect and avoid system (DAA), which is built around Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast-based tech, to serve as the replacement of human observers during its BVLOS drone flights. Wing had been operating the method while making deliveries to households within a six-mile radius of its hub in the Dallas suburb of Frisco – an airspace in which traditional aircraft are required to continually broadcast their position.

Last week’s additional FAA summary grant approving Wing’s DAA means the previous BVLOS authorization without ground observers can be widened across Dallas. More importantly to the company’s scaling plans, Stewart Nagle notes, it also applies to “similar airspace surrounding other major US cities, adding to the momentum of the drone delivery industry at large.”

The news is of obvious importance to Wing’s intention to expand its drone deliveries across the US. But it’s also significant to the growth of the services worldwide, according to Stewart Nagle, with the FAA approving an operational and tech approach that is already doing big business in Australia, and setting down roots in Finland and Ireland as well.

“Wing flies within underutilized airspace over populated areas and conducts comprehensive aviation community outreach, recognizing and working with other users of the surrounding airspace,” Stewart Nagle wrote on the company’s blog. “Our holistic approach to BVLOS flight has been used for commercial deliveries on three continents for several years.  It is grounded in avoiding potential conflict before flights ever take off and utilizes in-flight DAA to add an additional layer of safety.”

That regulator approved system, she stresses, will now become the operational and security basis upon which Wing delivery drones will blend into national airspaces and uncrewed traffic management systems (UTM) as it grows its business.

“The FAA’s approval for DAA and recognition of broader strategic deconfliction and UTM applications will allow us to operate more efficiently and work toward scaled operations nationwide.,” Stewart Eagle said. “Starting with communities across the Dallas-Fort Worth area, this action supports our path toward expanding our service across the US.”